1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in or relating to telephony, such as broadband wireless access (BWA) telephony.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Telephones are now ubiquitous. The advent of cellular radiofrequency telephones (“cell phones”) has caused a proliferation of telephones and has enabled users to be accessible by telephone wherever they go.
The proliferation of telephones has also had some disadvantages. Some users now have a cell phone for work and a personal cell phone, in addition to having one or more fixed line telephones at home, and a fixed line telephone in an office. This causes redundancy, which is inefficient.
Furthermore, the quality of telephony provided by cell phones is not always consistently high. There are still geographic areas having poor, limited, or no cell phone connectivity. Some international calls to or from cell phones also suffer from poor line quality, making effective communication difficult. Unsatisfactory connectivity and quality of service combine to make the elimination of a fixed telephone line and use of only mobile technology difficult at best.
Increasingly, cell phone users desire to be able to use their cell phones to answer all of their calls, whether these calls are business calls routed to their office, personal calls routed to their home, or personal calls routed to their cell phone. This allows continuous use of a single telephone whether at home, office or traveling. However, many people do not want to disclose their personal cell phone number to business contacts.
Routing calls from a land line to a cell phone has its own problems. Call forwarding requires multiple networks, giving rise to multiple fees and delays. If calls are not forwarded, then answering machines are typically used. Electro-mechanical answering machines typically wait a predetermined number of rings before answering. In addition, they are more prone to breaking down than network-based answering machines.